Duncan, the shots dark on my laptop and desktop (calibrated Ezio monitor). You might slow down your shutter speed on your interior flash shots. In general you are consistently under exposed and could use a little pop in your exterior shots.
As to your monitor: Your brightness issue is very common. Many monitors are set to bright. It is appealing, but, it doesn't represent what your computer program sends to the printer.
Thanks all. Double checked this last night and my monitor is too bright (as you all say!) - doh! I think I miscalibrated. The eyeOne software's UI sucks a bit in that it uses a wizard with back/next buttons, but it also has that silly Start button you need to use to e.g. change luminance and contrast - think I must have missed it on by just pressing next, next, next.
Tried recalibrating last night and the situation has improved, although my monitor apparently won't get dark enough! I couldn't get it below 160 (with 0 brightness!) when I should be getting it down to 120. I don't know if the generated profile is then adjusted to darken it further to get it to the right luminance or if I'm just stuck with an overbright monitor?
I tried doing some prints to compare, and did side-by-side comparisons on my "callibrated" and non-callibrated monitor and they seem closer (although it seems perverse using my non-callibrated monitor as the desired end goal!). The prints compared better except for an over eagerness in the reds/magentas on the prints - but that's one for another post!
James, certainly agree with your comment re: underexposure. I'm a total novice with the flash and am struggling to get to grips with it. Obviously I don't want to increase my flash power and blow the foreground more, but by slowing the shutter I'm going to have problems with shake. Do I need to work on my flash technique more, or is it a matter of trying to improve my shooting technique so I can handhold with slower shutter speeds, or is it gear, or is it all of the above?
On the outside shots lacking pop, my outdoor shots are actually what I'm most happy/comfortable with so I'm probably more concerned by that! Would you be able to explain a little what's not quite right, point me at a couple of examples and things I could do to improve them? I would be very appreciative of your help if so!!
Thanks for your help to date guys.